NFL player KJ Osborn helps rescue man from burning car in Austin

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A professional football player helped pull a man out of a burning car following a crash early Monday morning in Austin.

KJ Osborn, a wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings, and three other people got the driver out of the wrecked car, with flames pouring from the hood, after it hit a pillar around 2:30 a.m. Monday. Osborn was in a rideshare when his driver saw the car crash. He posted pictures of the wrecked car and everyone who helped get the man out of the car.

"Most of the time the saying goes, 'wrong place wrong time,'" Osborn tweeted. But this time I believe God and me, us, at the right place at the exact right time."

Osborn said it was a "situation I'd never imagine being a part of in a million years." He told the story on "The Adam Schefter Podcast," shortly after it happened.

"When we went up to the car, and I was thinking, like, 'this car could blow up at any second and it could all be over,'" Osborn said. "My driver went up to the car to see if the guy was alive.

Osborn said the man was able to get into the passenger seat and that was when Osborn and the others pulled the man out of the car. Osborn said he picked the man up and carried him, "10-15 yards away from the car."

"After everything, the police said he wouldn't have been able to get out of the vehicle without our help," Osborn said. "We began to talk to him and try to get him out, and he was able to muster some strength to move, and that's when we got him out."

Austin police told the Associated Press the man suffered injuries not considered life-threatening, and by the time officers arrived at the scene, "had already been removed from the vehicle."

Osborn said he missed the first ride he called, which led to him calling the ride that ended up taking him to the scene of the crash. He told Schefter he was in Austin training and that he's usually in Miami during the offseason.

"That was the craziest experience of my life," Osborn said.